ships having greater space between decks. On the contrary, they were less so. Economy of space was studied with a sharp eye. It would never do to allow all that space between decks to remain unoccupied. So a shelf or gallery, usually six feet wide, was suspended midway between the two decks, and on this another layer of slaves was placed Of course the deck under the shelf or gallery was covered with slaves packed as closely together as possible. This shelf was made of unplaned lumber, and there was no effort to make tight the joints between the boards.
The smaller ships — the sloops and schooners that had no 'tween-decks — were arranged for stowing the slaves by building a temporary deck beneath the upper one. Having stowed the barrels of food and water in the hold so as to occupy as little space as possible, a row of stanchions, fore and aft on the keelson, and rising just above the barrels, was erected. These were connected by a ridge-pole, and from this ridgepole rafters were extended to the sides of the ship. On the rafters common unplaned boards were laid. Thus a deck was laid that could be easily removed on occasion.
The space between this deck and the upper one was rarely, if ever, more than three feet high, and cases are on record where it was considerably less than two feet — in this century even as little as eighteen inches.
Most of the vessels used after the trade was outlawed were of the small, single-decked class. Because the trade was unlawful these slavers had to be prepared to pass as palm-oil buyers when they were overhauled by a cruiser, and they could not do that if they had a slave-deck laid. Accordingly the slave--
